FOA: PA-16-294 Opportunity Title: NIH Support for Conferences and Scientific Meetings (R13/U13) Agency: NIH - NIBIB Proposal Title: 2018 OSA Topical Meetings: Optical Tomography and Spectroscopy; and Microscopy, Histopathology and Analytics. Discussing New Research in Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering Principal Investigator: Gregory J. Quarles, Ph.D., Chief Scientist, The Optical Society 2010 Massachusetts Ave, NW, Washington, DC gquarles@osa.org, 202-416-1954 Project Summary /Abstract: The 2018 OSA Biophotonics Congress: Biomedical Optics, 3-6 April 2018, Hollywood, FL, consists of four topical meetings. Two of these meetings, Optical Tomography and Spectroscopy (OTS) and Microscopy, Histopathology and Analytics (Microscopy) provide broad exposure to a very active multidisciplinary field in biomedical imaging and bioengineering focused on illness treatment and health enhancement. The interdisciplinary nature of the co- located meetings will provide cross-fertilization of concepts and techniques between fields with the resulting synergies obtained from such interactions. This proposal is to provide registration and travel support for students and early career professionals presenting at one of these topical meetings. OTS will focus on new developments in diffuse optics, spectroscopy and other non- invasive tomographic imaging approaches, including the fields of diffuse optical tomography (DOT), photoacoustic tomography (PAT), optical coherence tomography (OCT), wavefront engineering to overcome scattering, as well as new developments in spectroscopic technologies. Microscopy will include topics central to the development of optical microscopy and in vitro optical sensing for the clinic. Areas such as novel optical approaches, including computational optics, new image processing and segmentation techniques, development of decision-assistance algorithms via machine-learning and other strategies, testing technologies in pre-clinical models, applications to clinical samples, and validation in the clinic will be discussed. Optically enabled microfluidics are included in this track as well. The goal of these efforts should be towards clinical translation. The general purpose of these meetings is to create an inclusive, open forum for the presentation of high-quality scientific research through plenary and technical sessions, short courses, panels, networking and special events. This method of face-to-face information sharing allows researchers to learn what others in their field and related disciplines are doing and to efficiently learn about new research, tools, and techniques that might be relevant to their work. It allows conversations with colleagues from different institutions around the world and engenders far reaching scientific collaborations ? both domestic and international.